Manufactured Persephone
by palomino333
Summary: "While he had saved her from GLaDOS, he had still taken (dare he admit it) enjoyment in attempting to break Chell down while she was at his mercy." Wheatley debates on whether his complicated relationship with his lady friend is one worth remembering.


According to his cut voice lines, the Adventure Core was originally sucked out into space along with Wheatley and the Space Core, and I wanted to build off of that for the sake of banter.

* * *

"I wish I could take it all back, I honestly do." It was a fitting consequence, Wheatley supposed, that his predicament was to float aimlessly through space with two imperfect cores much like himself. After casting Chell and GLaDOS into the deepest bowels of Aperture (although the latter deserved it), he would have plenty of time to think about what he had done. Even so, it still felt cruel to be stranded with no one for company, save two other disposed Identity Cores much like himself. Especially in terms of the Space Core, who was proclaiming his love to the desolate single moon that Earth had.

That wasn't to say the Adventure Core was necessarily pleasurable company, either. "Oh, shut up," he muttered in a grumpy tone at his over-excited comrade.

Wheatley was paying little attention to the one-sided argument, and for good reason. GLaDOS had been right all along, and quite honestly, it hurt. He was a moron, despite what he would say otherwise. Not only was he responsible for her reactivation, which began this entire mess, but he had also turned on possibly the only ally he would make. Chell was a rather curious human, she made that perfectly clear upon his meeting with her. He certainly hadn't expected her to jump, as opposed to speaking, when instructed to do the latter. Then again, his interactions with humans hadn't been very numerous to begin with, so there wasn't much to go on in terms of comparison. Odder still was the fact that she could pull off what she did. The living human occupants had been assigned for testing purposes only, but considering the fact that he wasn't exactly good at handling them, any interaction with them had been void. As such, Wheatley had come to see Chell not only as a guinea pig, but also a rather outlandish one at that. Such an occurrence was called a miracle, a creature surviving despite the odds. Wheatley couldn't say it was entirely his fault when he simply wasn't fit for the task he was given. Besides, there had been several humans to choose from for testing.…Well, then again, those hadn't made it, but still, that wasn't the point.

"Hey, blue! You paying attention?"

The sharp tone of the Adventure Core's voice drew him back to the present. "Huh, what?"

"I said, it's your damn fault I'm in this mess," the core in question growled, his voice losing volume somewhat as he orbited around the back of the Space Core, the green and yellow cores having Wheatley as the main body.

"I said that a dozen times already," Wheatley replied in an irritated tone, "Weren't you listening?"

"Kinda hard to hear you over that," he replied gruffly.

"So much space," muttered the Space Core excitedly, as if in confirmation to the Adventure Core's point.

"Anyway, genius, what the hell are we gonna do now? We can't just sit here!" Technically, they were floating as opposed to sitting, and the green speaker was proven further wrong by the fact that he was going around Wheatley as he spoke.

"What are we going to do, mate?" Wheatley responded simply, "I mean, really. Unless a portal will somehow appear out of thin air to take us back, I doubt we'll be back on Earth."

The Adventure Core chuckled. "That angel the Space Core and I saved back on Earth will take care of us, I just know it. She won't forget about us."

"Oh, come off it!" Wheatley snapped, his irritation getting the better of him, "We're in space! Just how do you think she'd get us back?"

His anger drained out quickly due to worry as he added in an afterthought, "Not to mention she's stuck with her again."

"Wait, who?" He demanded while the Space Core prattled on about space cops, or some such nonsense.

"Man alive, are you completely stupid? GLaDOS, it's GLaDOS!"

"Oh, her?" Inquired the Adventure Core, "I think I remembered being linked to her once. Crazy woman, that one, but a little boring. She always talked about testing, or something like that. Ha! Testing! The last test I took, I got an A for awesome. I would've gotten an A+, but the teacher was too in awe by my performance to put it down!"

"What?" Wheatley asked in bewilderment after a moment of stunned silence.

"Yep, that was a fine day," continued the core self-indulgently, "It was probably one of the toughest tests I'd taken, but it was worth the studying I did for it. Aced how to save a princess, how to plunder a castle's treasures, and how to save the world all in one hour."

"That was on paper, right?" Wheatley asked, his disbelief continuing.

"What? Heck no! Where's the action in that? There's no story to tell, no pretty girl to save! But damn, was that damsel beautiful! Not as gorgeous as that blue-eyed angel back down on Earth, but this girl comes really close. That golden hair…" His words trailed off with a sigh.

"Right," the blue core replied noncommittally, beginning to silently beg for the deactivation of his audio receptors.

"Anyway, she wasn't in that place, which is weird, since that GLaDOS lady was really big. I swear, I think she took up most of the building."

"She was," Wheatley replied with a groan, his voice rising with pride as he explained, "I put her into a potato battery."

The Adventure Core was facing away from him in the attempt to do an aside to the Space Core, who responded by nervously accusing him of being a space cop. However, he spun back around at this revelation. "Really? Well that explains what I saw sticking out of that weird gun the angel was carrying. Boy, I have never seen a girl move like that through the air! What an acrobat, and those legs…" A metallic whirring, his answer to a purr, emanated from him.

"She has a name!" Wheatley snapped defensively.

"'Course, it's 'Angel,' or 'Sweetheart,' maybe even 'Amazon' if we're going for something more classic," he prattled in a dream-like tone, his optic half-shuttering.

"Chell," he responded in exasperation, "Her name is Chell. You practically worship her, and you don't even know her name."

"I don't need to," the Adventure Core responded in a dry tone, his optic rolling, "And thank you for spoiling her a little for me."

"'Spoiling her?' You knew her for a few minutes, and you're madly in love with her? Have you lost your mind?" His tone was incredulous.

"Need I remind you that Spaceboy and I were sitting in a pile of cores for decades while you got to joyride all over the damn place on a rail? That girl was a breath of fresh air!" He bobbed slightly upward for emphasis.

"I wasn't joyriding!" Wheatley's attempt to slam into him was stopped due to the gravitational force of orbit keeping the Adventure Core well out of his way. In frustration, he continued, "I went wherever I was told, with no freedom whatsoever! At least you had someone to talk to; I didn't! I could try to answer back to the voice that told me to move, but it wasn't built for conversations," he added as an afterthought, "Who did he think he was, anyway, the king of Aperture? It was always 'go here, reroute oxygen there, test subject's vital signs are falling in room 558.' You would think I would have had more help!"

"Dad, I'm in space!" The Space Core exclaimed in a jubilant tone of voice. He took the time to respond to himself in a deeper voice, "I'm proud of you, son." Still, neither Wheatley nor the Adventure Core said anything, rather they stared at each other as the latter continued to orbit the former. "Dad, are you space?" The Space Core's inquiry was tentative.

"So, got it all off your chest?" The Adventure Core finally asked in an oddly quiet voice.

"I suppose," Wheatley responded with a sigh.

"Yes. Now we can be a family," replied the Space Core to its self-contained conversation in the deeper voice.

"You sure? We're not going anywhere any time soon," prodded the Adventure Core.

"I think that's enough for now," he replied in a resigned tone of voice. The Space Core's jubilant squeal at being reunited with its "father" followed shortly after.

"Still, what I can respect you for, despite the fact that you tried to kill a pretty lady like her, is how you managed to get off that damn rail to start with," the Adventure Core continued, changing the subject with a chuckle, "Can't imagine how much effort that took to pry yourself off, and bravery to drop fifty feet straight down."

Wheatley gave a nervous returning chuckle at his praise. "Right, right, thanks mate."

"Although I could've sworn I heard you say something to that beauty about not catching you? I can sympathize, buddy. I'd want her to catch me when I fell, too. Those soft human hands…" He let out a heady sigh.

Swallowing back his embarrassment, Wheatley prodded, "Sorry, what core are you again?"

"One that's smart enough not to take shots at a gorgeous girl like that!" He responded, dropping the sentimental tone immediately. Venom entered his voice as he added, "You're a son of a bitch, you know that? She was lying there, on the floor, barely breathing, and you wanted to know why she wasn't dead? You know what, take back what I said, I'm glad she didn't catch you!" He ranted on, exclaiming, "You're lucky I don't have hands, otherwise I'd shatter that blue optic of yours in a nanosecond!"

The Space Core let out an ear-splitting "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAA AAAAAAAA!" at that moment, causing Wheatley to nearly off-line his in-built com link, lest his system be overridden by the sheer height of its volume. What stopped him, however, was the fact that his conversation, or rather, chest-puffing competition, with the Adventure Core was unfinished.

"Damn it, we know! Space!" The green core yelled in anger at the yellow, who continued prattling on, oblivious to him.

"But you don't have hands, do you?" He provoked the angered core, "No, no you don't, meanwhile I got to control the entire building of Aperture!" His optic stared upward, rolling slightly as he emphasized the sheer scale of such. However, that was completely undermined by the fact that they were floating in the utter vastness of space, deeming his declaration useless.

The Adventure Core's only answer was a frustrated snarl of, "So?"

"So, I could've thrown you about, if I felt like it! I didn't need arms when the entire facility bent to my will! Thus explosions you liked so much? You have me to thank for them!" His opponent merely grumbled, having lost the argument. "And again, how about you call her by her name, instead of just a 'that girl,' or 'lovely lady?' It's a tad creepy, I'll be honest with you," Wheatley pressed.

"I told you before, a lady like her is one you see in a lifetime. She's the first lady I've ever seen that could hold her own in a fight, not without some bumps and bruises, sure, but they gave her character. She's practically a Joan of Troy, or maybe even that human goddess of war, Venus, at least compared to the other cores I knew. Morality sure was pretty, but she never talked, and Curiosity was cute, but she was always looking at the other guys."

"I thought there were more female cores than that?"

"There's a star, there's another one…Star, star, star…" The Space Core muttered as drifted on its "back," the top half of its body having swung completely up.

"Oh, shut up!" Its fellow orbiter scolded, "Yeah, there probably were, but they weren't really much worth looking at. Although Cake would've made a nice wife, seeing as how well she could cook. Never did see that recipe being used, though."

"You do realize that Chell isn't a core, I'm hoping?" Wheatley asked tentatively.

"'Course not, and that's what makes her so special. Never considered human ladies that attractive 'til I laid eyes on her. Most of the ones I'd seen before her were too dull, always walking around with their fancy lab coats, and their clipboards, and their glasses, talking about DNA this and First Law of Physics that. See, I never follow laws; life's too boring when you do that. Guess I was just too much of a bad boy for them." Wheatley wondered if GLaDOS was wrong in calling him, as opposed to the Adventure Core, an idiot. Then again, the Space Core would have been a good candidate for that title, although he wasn't sure if that core counted; he was too much off into his own world, so to speak. "But I guess she was one, too, since you were so hell-bent on killing her, and all."

Wheatley whirled on him, the shutter over his optic dropping to the point where the blue light beneath was showing at a slit."Stop! Stop saying that!"

"Why?" The Adventure Core taunted, "You can't do anything to me from here!"

"Stop it!" He snapped, shuttering his optic completely, and shaking from side to side.

"Not so tough without your toys now, are ya?" He mocked, rolling his optic.

"Comets, galaxies, Jupiter, the Big Dipper…" The Space Core murmured in excitement.

"There's nothing in space!" The Adventure Core chided him.

Wheatley's optic flew open as he screamed, "ENOUGH!" His attempt to dart forward, however, was rendered completely useless by a lack of gravity. Spinning to face each core in turn, he exclaimed, "I'm tired of your utterly revolting insults and bragging, and as for you, don't you ever shut up?!"

"Yeah, he's not gonna do that," the Adventure Core replied as the Space Core began to obliviously sing a rather clueless rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

"Twinkle twinkle little star—ooo no, wait, it's that star—no that one, over there. No, that's a comet, no an asteroid, no it's a star, no a satellite! Twinkle twinkle little satellite— "

Wheatley groaned heavily. "He has an excuse. I don't want to spend the rest of runtime floating around the universe listening to two broken cores chattering away."

"'Broken?' Have you looked in a mirror?" The Adventure Core replied in an offended voice.

"I don't have the option to do that right now, but that's beside the point," he replied, "And I just admitted I was as broken as you two were not fifteen minutes ago. Did you not hear me wishing I could apologize to Chell, or was that little ball of joy over there that loud for you?"

"Would you quit saying her name? It's ruining the image of her for me."

"No, in fact I'll say it as much as I want," he replied, seizing his opportunity, "See your little friend over there? I can be just like him. I'll say her name as many times as I bloody want! In fact, I'll do it right now! Chell, Chell, Chell!"

The Adventure Core's optical shutter closed immediately. "Shut the hell up!"

"Why should I? No one's here to stop me!" Wheatley taunted rather childishly, continuing on with his exclamation of the moniker of the woman in question. GLaDOS was no longer there to reprimand him for yelling what he pleased, after all. However, he soon stopped his screaming session anyway, much to the relief of the greatly annoyed green core.

GLaDOS, although she had been greatly irritated by his calling Chell "fatty," and making fun of her for being adopted during the testing sessions he had put her through, never actually had any power to stop Wheatley's bullying. Rather, it was his own embarrassment that she was chiding him that stilled his words. No, Chell didn't look fat at all, and maybe it wasn't very nice to poke fun at the fact that she was an orphan. At least, that explained how he had tripped over his words as GLaDOS scolded him, quickly trying to redeem himself by saying that most of his friends were orphans.

Chell's blue eyes glinted venomously out at him from the shattered chamber of the escape pod, glass and GLaDOS' potato form lying at her feet, the portal gun at her side. That defiance was magnified tenfold as she was propelled through the air toward one of his monitors in a testing chamber, her teeth gnashed, and her right elbow braced sideways shortly before impacting the full right side of her body against the glass. An ugly spider web crack formed immediately, distorting his view of the room. Not to say Chell hadn't repeated the destructive behavior; she'd broken quite a few of his monitors before the tests were finished. But still, the first time she did stuck out the most to him due to the pure rage on her face. If anything, Wheatley could admit to himself that she had actually scared him with that look. He'd found a companion in her after years of being essentially on his own.

Although she didn't verbally respond to him when he spoke to her, the small smiles, or outright grins she gave him at times were rather nice. Probably the most splendid of them had been directly after Chell had dethroned GLaDOS to place him in charge of Aperture. She'd been utterly stunning in that bright light, despite the fact that she had been sweating, her black hair was coming out of her ponytail and hanging in strings, and the make-up she had been wearing had all but faded off. Yet, she still held her head up high at what they had accomplished. Or rather, what Chell had accomplished, said the opinion of GLaDOS. Wheatley comforted himself with the fact that had it not been for his moral support, Chell wouldn't have done anything. After all, he kept her spirits up with his riveting tales of the janitor and Bring Your Daughter to Work Day…Perhaps those weren't the best examples. Even so, at least he had managed to replicate a sense of camaraderie with her, since humans needed that so much. It was a wonder that she hadn't mentally reverted to the state of a chimpanzee during the tests in which she was alone.

But that moment when all had seemed won for the two of them had been ultimately ruined, and it was by none other than GLaDOS herself. True, maybe he should have let Chell go right away, since she did seem so hell bent on getting out of Aperture, but he would take care of her. After all, he'd nearly gotten her out to start with, had it not been for accidentally reactivating the laboratory's resident tyrant. It had been an honest mistake. Besides, he had still come to rescue her from GLaDOS' clutches, anyway. He'd certainly proved himself to be much more of a knight in shining armor than the Adventure Core so pretentiously labeled himself as.

What were a few tests going to matter? At least he wouldn't have been a slave driver like GLaDOS. Then came the taunts, the anger that the former queen of Aperture so vehemently declared to him by labeling him as an idiot and a moron, and degrading him into nothing more than a precursor to her own stupidity. Okay, true, maybe giving GLaDOS the thought to give the reward to a test subject first, and then expect said subject to complete the test afterwards wasn't the brightest idea, but it was still something new, nonetheless. It didn't qualify him as an idiot. Besides, it wasn't as if he'd made her destroy part of Aperture in the past.

His optic widened in realization. Oh wait, he did. Well, it wasn't as if the idea of having holes in the testing chamber walls had been implemented before. Wheatley had thought that the holes would have given the areas aesthetic character, but GLaDOS had obviously figured otherwise. But to be kept as an errand boy for Aperture's mainframe for years on end, and to be degraded like that, especially in front of Chell…No, it had been too much. She was going to pay by being sent down where she could be forgotten in that sad shell of a potato.

Unfortunately, his anger had gotten the better of him, and Chell had been in the line of fire, as well. Granted, she should've known better than to simply stand in the elevator that he was attacking, but then again, the broken glass was quite an obstacle for weak human flesh to overcome. But that vicious glower she had given him…Had Wheatley merely been a core at that point in time, he would have shrunk back, or flown away.

When she'd returned to Aperture, he'd actually felt a legitimate sense of happiness to see her again. He'd grown attached to her in his own way, and besides, the turrets didn't provide a sense of company. That became especially more so after he had fused them with companion cubes. How was he to know that doing so would make them so shy? Yet, she wasn't the same person when she had returned. For one thing, Chell had looked quite beat up, with bruises scoring her body, her clothing torn slightly, and a sense of weariness that was easily seen in the slight slump of her pose. That wasn't to mention the fact that GLaDOS was with her. It was utterly baffling that Chell would betray her own objective of escaping Aperture by recovering her nemesis. If anything, it supported his previous claim about Chell and her working together the entire time.

And with that reasoning, putting Chell through mind-bending tests in exchange for utter euphoria of one being completed didn't feel so wrong. But as that high began to wear off, however, he'd started to wonder what was the point of keeping her alive, if she did nothing for him. Looking back on it, he was appalled at mistreating Chell as he did. She was exhausted, having to lean on a wall more than once in the test chambers to regain her strength. He should have allowed her to rest. Then again, she'd slept for 100 years, so that was more than enough. Didn't humans also eat, or something? Well, she did have a potato on the portal gun. Still, maybe it wasn't fair, and it wasn't necessarily pleasant to see Chell in such a fragile state, as compared to the much stronger woman he had met before.

She'd regained her strength during their final confrontation, and honestly, Wheatley found he couldn't blame her. He had tried to kill her, after all, and in a rather visceral manner. If anything, Wheatley knew he saw something in her that the Adventure Core never did: her vulnerability. She wasn't the infallible Amazon the Adventure Core believed her to be, rather she was a human, albeit a hard-to-kill one, that had merely been trapped in a situation beyond her control. Wheatley had somewhat liked seeing her that way. It certainly made him feel better about his past as a helpless core in the fact that she was just as flawed as he. However, it was also hurtful to him. While he had saved her from GLaDOS, he had still taken (dare he admit it) enjoyment in attempting to break Chell down while she was at his mercy.

"You didn't catch me! You didn't even try!" Chell did run forward to grab him with the portal gun, but she hadn't been quick enough. The fact of the matter was that he still hit the hard metal floor. But accusing her of not trying? Yes, that was wrong, especially considering her reaction to his words. Chell had actually stopped dead in her tracks from sprinting around inside of his lair, and swung her head up to fix him with a cold stare. At the time, he'd considered it to be just a passing glance, what it actually meant finally begun to set in. She had been demanding for him to look her in the eye, and say that again. The kicker was the fact that Wheatley didn't, although it was more out of confusion for her behavioral change. Nonetheless, Chell had won the silent exchange. That image of the sharp, blue gaze froze stood out in his memory. While Chell may have freed herself from him, GLaDOS still had her, and he was certainly sure that the vicious AI was only repeating the cycle of testing over again. Poor girl, it seemed that no matter her choice, she was merely selecting a new prison for herself.

"Seemed like you wanted to talk a lot earlier. What's with the attitude change?" The Adventure Core demanded.

"Don't like space, too big," the Space Core muttered.

"And why are you so depressed about being out here?" Wheatley demanded, "You're in the middle of space, mate. I'd think that would be enough of an adventure for even you."

"Wanna go to Earth…"

"This is isn't an 'adventure!' This is me floating around aimlessly with two pains in the ass for the rest of my run time! Does that sound like fun to you?" The Adventure Core shouted angrily.

"Earth, Earth, Earth. Wanna go to Earth."

"What, you think I'm having so much fun here? The only friend I've had is still down in that damn laboratory, and I can't do anything to get back to her!" Wheatley exclaimed, his voice cracking with his desperation.

"Wanna go home, wanna go home…"

After a pause, the Adventure Core began, "So— "

"What's there to really say?" Wheatley cut him off, "We have no way of getting home because of me. There, I said it. For the final time, it's my fault, I admit it."

"You're giving up?" The Adventure Core asked incredulously.

With a heavy sigh, Wheatley replied, "If you have any other ideas, now's the time to tell me."

The only response was the Space Core reiterating, "Wanna go to Earth."

Wheatley opened his memory banks once more, and drew out the image of a small smile Chell was giving him as she leaned back on a guard rail. She had been taking a rest while they were moving through the service area of the laboratory, with his optic guiding her as a flashlight. Grease was on her right cheek, but she didn't care to wipe it off. She'd previously held up a hand for him to stop, and he had done so with a begrudging, "Okay, but we have to keep moving."

In that moment of relaxation, he'd felt a sense of intimacy with her. She'd been tired, but still happy to have him with her in such a dark, ominous setting. Words simply hadn't been needed as Chell had been placed in his personal spotlight. It would be so much easier to simply delete his files of her. After all, he wasn't going to see her again. All that he would have of her were visuals that would eventually be lost in time. Humans didn't live very long.

He hesitated as the box popped up, asking him to confirm his decision. Chell's image was stilled behind it, her head tilted to the side in a somewhat challenging way, as if raring to explore more of this mysterious labyrinth of human creation with him. Wheatley became entranced by that look. Deleting her would remove the pain, yes, but it would also leave him floating around in space without any idea of how he got there. Considering how utterly unreliable the Adventure and Space Cores were in terms of narration, he didn't want to take that chance. The box was closed, and Chell remained. He missed her already.


End file.
